FIG. 1 depicts an air-bearing surface (ABS) view of a conventional magnetic recording transducer 10. The magnetic recording transducer 10 may be a perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) head. The conventional transducer 10 includes an underlayer 12, side gap 14, side shields 16, top gap 17, optional top, or trailing, shield 18 and main pole 20.
The main pole 20 resides on an underlayer 12 and includes sidewalls 22 and 24. The sidewalls 22 and 24 of the conventional main pole 20 form an angle with the down track direction at the ABS. The side shields 16 are separated from the main pole 20 by a side gap 14. The side shields 16 extend at least from the top of the main pole 20 to the bottom of the main pole 20. The side shields 16 also extend a distance back from the ABS. The gap 14 between the side shields 16 and the main pole 20 may have a substantially constant thickness. Thus, the side shields 16 are conformal with the main pole 20.
Although the conventional magnetic recording head 10 functions, there are drawbacks. In particular, the conventional magnetic recording head 10 may not perform sufficiently at higher recording densities. For example, at higher recording densities, a shingle recording scheme may be desired to be used. In shingle recording, successive tracks partially overwrite previously written tracks in one direction only. Part of the overwritten tracks, such as their edges, are preserved as the recorded data. In shingle recording, the size of the main pole 20 may be increased for a given track size. However, in order to mitigate issues such as track edge curvature, shingle writers have very narrow side gaps 14. Other design requirements may also be present. The magnetic transducer 10 may not perform as desired or meet the design requirements for such recording schemes. Without such recording schemes, the conventional transducer 10 may not adequately perform at higher areal densities. Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for improving the performance of a magnetic recording head.